Every one of our bodies tells a story. They share the decisions we have made, the accidents we have been in and our posture while still and in movement tells part of our life’s story.
The toe that hurts, the ankle that was broken, the diaphragm that’s dysfunctional or the hip that’s misaligned, all present in how we load and move our bodies. Then there’s the mental and emotional challenges that we’re faced with daily.
Everything from how we think, our habits, nutrition and training all play a role in how we move and recover.
The question we recommend asking is: How effortlessly do you stand or move through space?
The most common command from a loved one to a family member is, “Stand up straight!”. Although your mother’s caring intentions are good, that command misses the mark by a long shot for most people. To understand our posture’s current status we have to assess inherited energy, mental state, physical structure and overall lifestyle habits. All these factors can affect our postures either positively or negatively.
When meditating on why so many Americans don’t exercise or take better care of themselves, I’ve come to one conclusion: They are confused!
They are confused because there is so much information out there and everyone is sharing their social media ideas with such confidence. Not just that their solution should work but that it should work fast and for everyone. The problem is that when it doesn’t, that one thing that someone put time into fails, and it’s back to the starting line. Or better yet, the person you thought was an expert, actually lead you deeper into dysfunction.
This mental trap of over information and misleading information renders a lot of people in the stuck mode, like a car stuck in mud and spinning its wheels.
One of my talents or at least I’ve come to believe one of my talents is, being able to see the path for someone’s fitness. Quickly after speaking with someone, I can feel where they are at with their understanding, commitment and current status with their fitness. What I can share is that most everyone I meet wants better energy, function, and to feel better!
Then WHY are so many people STUCK? I think another major reason is because we, a large section of the fitness industry, are telling people to stand up straight. Meaning, the message of, “You should exercise…”, is clearly not enough!
I believe we need to be sharing ideas that help inspire curiosity and a TRAINING MINDSET. The quantum difference between an EXERCISE and a TRAINING mindset is worlds apart.
For many people it’s harder to stand with good posture when you sit all day or have low energy. Sitting can turn off muscles and dim down the nervous system. It can shorten muscles and depending on how long you sit and how often the game changes.
There are other major elements to the sitting conundrum, the older you are and the type of chair you sit in every day matters as well! The Covid pandemic did a number on so many of the older and elderly population. Many people found themselves becoming shaped like their chairs having a much harder time to have quality a standing and moving posture.
Gait is our holy grail of function and when that begins to become dysfunctional all hell can break loose with our balance and confidence. This lack of confidence leads to less movement, and this leads to a stagnant nervous system and what I call the body pump system. Our bodies are one big pumping system of flowing movement. The less we move, the slower it pumps, squeezes, twists, glides and compresses all the cells in our interstitim, organs and bone.
Standing up straight is not enough. It’s rooted in good intention, but it’s much more effective to train to have a body that moves efficiently. To do that, it takes getting to know yourself mentally, physically and spiritually. Then you have to TRAIN to undo the dysfunctional loading of sitting and reactivate your body to stand and move with flow.
In Nimble Fitness we recommend adding these new habits to start:
- Refrain from looking straight down at your phone so much! This takes your head, literally off your body. This is the exact position we are trying to prevent our head being in for extended periods. Instead, sit down, place your elbows on your knees or a table and look directly at your phone with a better head posture.
- Be mindful of not taking on the posture of your favorite chill chair! You might just end up shaped like the chair and looking at the ground in your last decade. If we train our bodies to be in specific postures for extended periods of time, the body listens and can end up taking the curvature of the chair or sofa you love so much. Be mindful to change things up and get on the floor every now and then. Get yourself in different positions and postures throughout a movie and your favorite show chill session. These little habit changes can go a long way in assisting with having improved posture.
- Train for posture. In Nimble we recommend including corrective exercises that help with having a healthy posture in your training program every week. We coach clients to be intentional with having good posture while performing exercises and take time to educate themselves on the ones that help their specific needs the most.
- OPPORTUNITY GAIT! Every time we walk we have an opportunity to either complement our posture while moving or not. We recommend leaving the bags at home whenever possible, wearing well-fitting shoes that work for the specific structure of your feet and being attentive to your full body movement when walking. A common fault we see in almost everyone is not allowing their rib cage to rotate, which initiates a healthy opposing arm swing. We also witness way too many people walking while looking at their phones and with head down.
You don’t have to make every change! Choose one and go for it. A little shift towards better function over a lifetime adds up like your bodies 401K!
Namaste,
Daniel
